I don’t want to give too many details so as to avoid doxing myself. I never left the US and wouldn’t have done so if asked, but fundamentally, I don’t think that really matters. It’s all part of the same machine. It was well before I became anything that could be described as communist, but all that means is that it hit that much harder when I had to come to terms with what I’d been a part of.
Maybe that’s the sort of thing you can’t ever make up for, but I’ll spend the rest of my life trying anyway. If anyone on this site never wants anything to do with me again after having read this, I understand.
I was in the Marines and took part in the occupation of Iraq. Some people don’t want anything to do with me, and honestly, respect. But I’m generally welcome here. And people like us can report from the belly of the beast and speak to specific evils, we need to get this information out. I’ve talked at least 3 people out of joining up, and many many people into considering that the military might not actually be a good thing and or turned them against war.
Thanks for the response. I’d like to hear about some of the stuff you’ve seen, if you don’t mind.
Gonna be honest, it’s too long of a story and I don’t really want to get doxxed. But here’s the cliff notes.
Insane amounts of money going to even the most basic things. Like contractors can just slurp up mountains of cash just to build a plywood shack.
Intel on various oppositional country’s governments where various industrial parts that have multitudes of uses are reported as “possibly nefarious”. This then gets leaked to the media to say “they’re building wmd’s”.
Really gross abuse of rank and file service members.
Extreme alcoholism and sexual assault.
Learned how the whole apparatus has its tentacles in every country around the globe.
Question, was there really as much shitty nu-metal being blared out of humvees as I imagine there was
while I understand the hostility people show towards the direct actors of the will of empire, I don’t understand why so many leftists act surprised that we give people front row seats to imperial violence and then act shocked when all of the propaganda can’t cover up the shock and horror of what they’re actually doing. For every Aaron Bushnell out there who went as far as self immolation, there must be at least 10,000 more people serving empire who are at least in doubt of what they’re doing. If someone wants to hit the “switch teams” button, I say welcome them in. I can’t imagine what that level of guilt must feel like, but if they’re willing to join the left, they’ve already done quite a bit of growth already
Honestly, that’s bad, but you’ve brought so much more pain into the world with such an ugly ass avatar
But nah really, rehabilitation is about realising things you didn’t before. We live in a big deceitful world that tells you your whole life that doing that kind of work is moral, and I think a lot of people here are very quick to condemn others for not exiting the womb and immediately being aware of world politics and class consciousness. It also takes bravery to face up to your past mistakes and admit they were wrong.
Glad to have you on side now, comrade.
What’s important is you realize now what horrors you were contributing to, no matter how far removed from it. It’s not an irredeemable stain of sin; it’s something you did before you knew any better, because you had been lied to your entire life, and are in fact still constantly lied to. You just understand they’re lies now.
Thanks. It’s just been kind of weighing on me since I occasionally see the sentiment of “all current and former US soldiers should be killed” get upvoted and I don’t really consider myself any better than a former troop just because someone else was paying me for the same kind of work.
